


Bonding over Bubble Teas

by love_in_the_city



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Bonding, Family Bonding, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Soft Foxes (All For The Game), bubble tea, soft, the monsters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27982617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_in_the_city/pseuds/love_in_the_city
Summary: Andrew woke up to a bad day in Columbia house, Aaron was having a stressful day so Neil decided to take Aaron out for a change.or an AU where Neil and Aaron bond over bubble teas and pop music.This is just too sweer both of the boys bonding and talking about their concerns, mostly Aaron.
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Neil Josten & Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 2
Kudos: 116





	Bonding over Bubble Teas

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I wanted to write a story where Neil and Aaron bond and talk through their concerns because Aaron is as complex of a character as Neil and Andrew is. Hope you guys like it, let me know in the comments. :)

It was a Sunday morning, and they were in the Columbia house. Andrew woke up feeling wrong; he closed his eyes as soon as he opened them. Neil was sleeping next to him. Andrew didn’t want it to be bad day, he had a lot to do, but he couldn’t help it. The feeling eating him inside out, pulling him deeper and deeper into despair, and only hurting him furthermore because, he was wasting his life and the world didn’t wait for those who were paused in time, it went on only causing you to loose even more than you have already lost. He pressed his palms to his eyes. Neil was stirring next to him, and as soon as he was fully awake he picked up on Andrew’s mood. Andrew didn’t really know how he managed it but he wasn’t pretending around Neil anymore. He was learning to be more vulnerable around him, which took a lot of work but he knew he could trust Neil. Neil respected his boundaries with no questions. It made Andrew feel fuzzy inside and he didn’t hate it anymore. Neil propped himself on his elbows, looking at Andrew. Andrew didn’t look back at him but felt his gaze. 

“Do you want to stay in bed today?” Neil whispered gently. Andrew nodded. 

“Alright” Neil said getting up, he turned around to take one last look at Andrew; he desperately wanted to reach out and wrap him in a gentle hug, protect him from the outside world and his thoughts. “If you need me, let me know.” 

Neil went downstairs; Kevin was on the couch, with a cold towel on his head, to ease his hangover. Nicky was in the kitchen, making breakfast and Aaron was sitting on the dinner table, his book sprawled in front of him, biting his pencil. He looked frustrated. Neil went to the kitchen, Nicky turned around when he approached, frowning when he didn’t see Andrew trail behind.

“Bad day?” he asked. Neil nodded. Nicky sighed and went back to cutting some more cheese. Neil knew Nicky got sad whenever Andrew had a bad day, blaming himself for not being able to help. Nicky only wanted the twins to have a peaceful life, where the both of them got along. Neil put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile; Nicky smiled back, his appreciation to the small gesture obvious from his face. Both boys ate breakfast, Kevin refusing because he might throw up and Aaron just not paying attention to them at all. Nicky took one last look at Aaron and sighed. The twins being in a bad mood affected his mood as well. Nicky saw them as his own children, Neil knew that, seeing the twins in a bad mood put Nicky down as well. It was like a chain reaction in the Minyard-Hemmick household, one of them feeling bad affected the rest. Nicky always said Neil was their rock, and if Neil was the one having the bad day, everyone would feel shit, including Aaron. (Which Neil wasn’t so convinced but observing closely he realised Aaron’s mood went down every time Andrew’s did, so Neil feeling bad meant Andrew feeling bad and affecting Aaron meaning Nicky will be sad and Neil feeling bad immediately affected Kevin as if Neil’s pain was his own)They were a family, an odd one but they made it work. 

Looking one last look at the room, Neil turned to Nicky;

“Why don’t you have the day just for yourself, don’t worry about us, facetime Erik and just enjoy the day with him.” 

Nicky didn’t look so convinced but the smile Neil was giving him made him give in to the offer. He headed to his room and closed the door before adding a small call out for me if you need anything.

Neil went over to the single arm chair, turning on an exy game on TV. Kevin opened his eyes barely, still suffering but Neil would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy Kevin in that state. He told him last night to go slow but Kevin didn’t listen so now Neil wasn’t all too sad at him suffering. 

He didn’t know how long they have been watching the game but Kevin dosed off, Neil somewhat paying attention, he heard a groan come from the table. Turning his head towards the sound, Neil saw Aaron had his head between his hands, pressing it hard to his temples. Something both twins did when they had a headache. Neil knew it all too well. He got up from the armchair and stood in front of Aaron’s chair. Aaron looked up with squinted eyes. 

“What” he gritted out. 

“Stop studying” Neil said with a shrug

“Fuck off” Aaron said but the normal fury in his voice was gone. Neil pulled the chair opposite him and sat down. 

“You been working the whole morning and afternoon, you won’t understand the rest of what you study, let go.” 

In defeat Aaron dropped his head on his arms; Neil didn’t know that he would give in that easily. He leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. 

“Lets go out.” Aaron looked up from where he laid his head. 

“What?” he asked shocked. Neil sighed. 

“You are overworking yourself, you didn’t eat and you just need a break. Let’s go to the town, see some Christmas light they might already have them put up.” Aaron looked at him with shock.

“You realise I am Aaron right?”

“Of course you idiot.” Aaron hummed.

“Just wanted to be sure.” Neil sighed and hit his palms on the table, making Aaron jerk a little. 

“I will get changed and meet you in the car in ten minutes.” Neil said getting up. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing so he didn’t have any answers to Aaron’s questioning looks. He headed to Andrew and his shared room, entering it gently to not make a lot of noise. Andrew was sleeping but he didn’t look relaxed even in his sleep. Neil grabbed his jeans and his keys and headed to the bathroom to change. He knocked on Nicky’s door before entering. Nicky was sitting in the middle of his bed, his laptop in front of him, with a huge smile on his face. He looked up when he saw Neil, his eyes sparkling from talking to Erik for hours. Neil felt something warm pass inside him. 

“Me and Aaron are going out to the town, wanted to let you know.” Nicky’s smile turned into an expression of shock, his eyes growing bigger. 

“Everything alright?” he asked concerned.

“Yeap, just wanted to take Aaron out so he get his head cleared a bit.” Nicky nodded, trying to put aside the fact that this was not something that happened at all but still pretending this was a normal Sunday afternoon. 

“Alright” he said with a small smile, “Update me.”

Neil nodded and headed to the car, Aaron was already waiting in the passenger side, not successful in hiding his questioning face.

Both boys got into the car, Neil driving them to the town, none of them spoke on the way and again none of them expecting the other to say anything. 

When they arrived Neil parked the car and they headed toward the town centre, both boys walking next to each other, hands stuffed in their pockets. There was an awkward pause before Neil turned to Aaron asking what he would like to eat. Aaron eyed him before turning towards a shop, that had people lining up outside. Neil looked at the shops name;

“Bubble tea?” he asked. Aaron just looked at him blankly. 

“I said food Aaron.”

“They sell food here”

“What do they sell?”

“Waffles”

“Aaron, that’s not proper food.” 

“So, its fine, get in the line Josten, what flavour do you want?”

“The waffle?”

“No Josten, the bubble tea, did you not have any before?”

“No?”

“Of course you didn’t. Fine, let’s go with the basic one for you.”

They waited together in the line, not talking to each other. It was taking so long and Neil was getting impatient.

“Stop fidgeting.”

“I am bored.” Aaron looked at him and looked at the line in front of him. Then he turned to Neil one more time

“Let’s play 20 questions, I will go first, favourite food?” Neil was shocked; he didn’t know how to progress anything, Aaron asking him a question, Aaron talking to him. Yes it was him who suggested going out but Aaron actually willingly engaging? That was weird. 

“Umm, I don’t know, noodles? I like it when we order Chinese takeout.” Aaron hummed

“Your turn now, ask me something.”

“Whats bubble tea?” Aaron laughed, making Neil step back in confusion. Was Aaron really laughing?

“Well there are these small bubbles inside the cold tea called pearls and they can be any flavour you want, and when you drink it with the straw they pop inside your mouth making the flavour spread inside your mouth. Its quite fun actually.” Neil nodded.

“My turn, why math major?”

“I don’t know its something stable, it’s the same everywhere, it doesn’t need adaptation wherever you go. It stays the same. I guess I wanted to have something that would stay stable for once in my life.”

“Well you got Andrew as a form of stability, and the Foxes too. You shouldn’t worry about that anymore.” Neil was stunned, didn’t know how to respond to that. He just nodded.

“Are you happy?” he asked. Aaron turned to look at his face in disbelief. He paused a little, eyeing Neil before answering.

“Yes, I am, I have Katelyn, she is very nice to me and accepts me with whatever has happened to me. Even after last thanksgiving she didn’t leave me, only grew closer to me. She makes me happy.” Neil nodded, waiting for Aaron to ask the next question but there was silence between them before Aaron went on.

“And I am happy because Andrew is happy, you make him happy, I didn’t trust you at all especially after learning that you have been lying to us all along, but you make him happy so I can’t judge that and as long as you don’t hurt him, there is no reason for me to hate you.” Neil stayed silent, biting the inside of his mouth.

“I don’t hate you too.” He said with a small voice. Aaron nodded before turning to the counter to order.

“I will have one Jasmin bubble tea with waffle and one mango black tea bubble tea with a waffle.”

After getting their drinks and food, they walked around the town, and to both of their surprise they fell into an easy chat. Neil found himself enjoying Aaron’s company. Once they were finished eating, they threw away their trash and started walking back to the car. On the way, Aaron wanted to show Neil an interesting looking building that he quite fancied so they took the other road to the car. Neil couldn’t see the appeal of the building but nodded along anyway to please Aaron. Aaron fell back to talking about the latest video game that was coming out when he suddenly gasped. Neil turned around alarmed towards what Aaron was looking at. It was a shop with bright neon lights that had an animated bubble tea sign. Aaron’s eyes were wide with shock and amazement. 

“Neil” he whispered, tagging on Neil’s sleeve. He turned around his brown eyes wide with desire. “Can we have another one?” 

Neil bit his lip, what would Kevin say? Probably something about high sugar and an athlete’s diet. Yeah, screw Day;

“Alright, what do you want this time?”

They gotten matcha bubble tea and passion fruit bubble tea. They walked around the town one more time when a music coming from one of the shops caught Neil off guard. He remembered the song from somewhere, the upbeat music and the lyrics he couldn’t really make out. It reminded him of Italy, and driving with windows down, music blasting while his mother slept on the passenger seat, one of the few times he could get to normal as possible. 

“What’s the name of this song?” Aaron rolled his eyes.

“Of course you don’t know this song, really Josten it’s a classic, even if you don’t know it you know it, its September. A song everyone knows.” Neil nodded but he couldn’t hear the rest of the song as they walked further away from the shop. They threw away their trash one more time before entering the car. 

Neil buckled up and pulled off from the park as Aaron fumbled with his phone turning the radio off. The car was filled with the music he heard earlier. Neil concentrated on the road ahead, fingers drumming the steering wheel. All of a sudden Aaron started singing the song quietly.

“Do you know the lyrics?” 

“Nope, I just make it up as I go, never looked them up. Ooh you probably don’t know this too, another cultural song you must learn, especially since you are British.” He pressed on another song from his phone and the car was filled up with upbeat music once more. 

“Coming out of my cage, And I've been doing just fine…” 

Aaron was banging his head to the music, Neil listening to the lyrics carefully as he kept drumming his fingers. The second time the chorus came Aaron started singing along loudly, dramatically head banging and air drumming. He turned his finger towards Neil and then covered his eyes singing; 

“I just can’t look its killing me…” and then he started laughing, genuinely laughing. Neil felt a smile spread on his face. 

“So, are they a British band, is that why its important to British?” Neil asked once the song was over. Aaron laughed, yeah sure he said, before going back to his phone to search for more songs.

“What kind of music you like?” Neil shook his head and shrugged.

“I don’t know, whatevers on the radio I guess?” Aaron hummed.

“Well, that’s quite boring isn’t it, we have to find what type of music you like.”

“We?” Neil asked. Aaron looked at him blankly.

“Yes, we, I am going to help you find a music genre you like” he said going back to his phone. He played a couple more songs, some classic pop music, some punk music, rock, whatever he could find. Neil listened to them all closely but mostly enjoyed the pop music. Aaron huffed, closing his phone.

“Okey, its official, you are a very, very typical person. You have absolutely no taste, you are one of those people who says let’s put more spice into this food and only add pepper, why would you only enjoy the most classic, the most blunt pop songs. Honestly Josten, if it weren’t for your mafia background, you wouldn’t have anything interesting about you. “ 

If it were another day, Neil would have flipped Aaron off, but today he just laughed along to what he said. He heard a groan come from next to him; he looked to see Aaron clutching his stomach, his face a little pale. Aaron took a deep breath and rested his head on the dashboard. 

“Aaron, whats wrong?” 

“I think I had way too many bubble tea, I might throw up.”

“Well you cant cause Andrew will kill us.” 

“I know” Aaron huffed in agony.

“Well hold on we are almost there. Don’t die or else I would die too.” Aaron snorted.

“Please, Andrew would never kill you even if you be the death of me, you are above me.” Neil frowned at that. Was that what Aaron really thought of the situation. Andrew cared way too much about Aaron, deal or no deal. Andrew didn’t need a deal to protect Aaron. Neil knew that Andrew saw Aaron as a younger brother more than a twin. 

“You know he cares about you more right? Just because a stupid deals off doesn’t mean he stopped caring. Andrew just didn’t know how to communicate with people or trust them without deals, he needed assurance that, that person would give back to him, not leave him behind like he was left too many times. So he made deals, with you, Kevin,me. That was his way of showing he cared. But now, he knows that there is more to relationships than making deals, and he also knows you would never leave him. So he cares Aaron.”

Aaron was looking at him sideways from where he laid his head on the dashboard.

“Thanks” he whispered as Neil parked the car in front of the house. 

“Thank you for today and thank you for what you just said. Andrew, I just want to be brothers, as much as we can. I don’t know, I just need him, I want a family and I want Andrew to a part of it but I feel like he doesn’t want me. And honestly, that upsets me.” 

Neil nodded and turned to Aaron, giving him a small, quick smile. “He does care” he said before getting out of the car. Aaron opened the door, groaning and holding his stomach.  
“Prepare to be scolded, both you and me” Neil said as he opened the front door to the house. Kevin was sitting on the couch, watching a movie on TV, Nicky was seated on the floor eating chips straight from the packed, with every crunching noise, and Kevin was screwing his face in disgust. Andrew was in the middle of the living room, arms crossed across his chest, giving them a blank look. 

“It’s late” Kevin said not looking at them. 

“First of all, no its not, second why do you care?” Neil asked pointing at him. 

“I was worried for my brother” Kevin said shrugging.

Aaron chocked on his spit and coughed next to a very surprised looking Neil.

“I hate today” Aaron murmured before groaning. 

“You broke him” Andrew said, meaning Aaron’s current condition. Neil took one last look at Aaron before answering.

“Naah, he just had one too many bubble teas. He will be fine.” 

I am heading upstairs Aaron announced, ignoring Kevin’s complaints and Nicky’s protests of discluding him on bubble teas. 

Andrew stared at Neil for another minute before nodding his head upstairs. Neil followed him upstairs, closing their door behind him.

Andrew sat down on the bed, looking at Neil expectedly. Neil crossed the room and sat on the floor in front of Andrew. 

“He was stressed so I took him out, also giving Nicky some alone time to talk to Erik, Kevin was just suffering on the couch as he should.” 

Andrew nodded, looking at Neil with a closed off expression.

“Better?” Neil asked quietly. Andrew nodded then lied down on the bed. He raised his arms, indicating Neil to lie down with him. Neil stood up and sat on the corner of the bed. He wasn’t sure if Andrew would like him to be close to him. Andrew just sighed and grabbed Neil’s wrist, pulling him towards him and onto his chest. Andrew arranged them so Neil was lying with his head on Andrew’s chest. Andrew creased his hands through Neil’s hair, kissing the top of his head. 

“Thank you” he whispered to Neil’s curls. Neil smiled, pressing his nose further into Andrew’s chest. 

“They are my family too” he whispered back. Andrew hummed.

“Aaron thinks you don’t care for him, I think it’s making him sad” Neil sighed. Andrew hummed once more.

“Go to sleep” he said kissing Neil’s head once more. Neil closed his eyes, burying him in the warmth of Andrew.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeap, had to include British cultural heritage Mr.Brightside, all respects...


End file.
